Thursday, September 30, 2010

We have been running this week since returning from teaching in Texas at Crop, Paper, Scissors. All of the pieces are finally coming together for the Advent kit that will go on sale in the morning at 8am pacific time. Also, next week I will post a very basic supply list for anyone who may want to follow along when we start making tags on the 18th.
See you tomorrow!

Monday, September 27, 2010

For those of you in California, don't forget about the Remnants of the Past show on Oct 2nd. This is a small but worthwhile show about 5 miles from my house. Lots of great vendors and artists. You can read about my visit to the last show in the spring on a post I did April 29, 2010...remember the green chair? :(
Oh, and Rachel Ashwell is the special guest too.

"It will be our 7th show and I’m pretty sure it will be the best one yet! Many of your favorite vendors will be back to share their talent and their wares and I am proud to say, we have a couple new out-of-state vendors, as well. Please take a look at the Vendor List and Map to get more information and help plan your day with us."

-Judy

Dana Powers Barn
Admission $7 per person -

535 Mehlschau in Nipomo, CA
Take the Teft St exit from the 101. Go east, toward the mountains and follow the signs to the sale.

NOTE: please be sure to get there 30 mins after me so I get all the good stuff, including and not limited to, all green chairs. **This is what happens when you are writing blog posts with your sister in the same room.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

The group headed out to McKinney which is on the north east side of Dallas. In the many years I have been coming to visit my sister, we have never been to this area and you know it's always an adventure when you get to go someplace new.
McKinney has a great downtown and like many towns in Texas (and many other places) there is a big courthouse in the center of town. The stores and restaurants run all the way around the courthouse square. I will share the best stores we visited...some you may have already heard of, but all are worth the trip even if it's just for the inspiration.

Shop No. 1- Smitten

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from the upstairs loft

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A really great shop on the square...lots of things we wanted to take home with us. Deb got a darling little lamp that just needs to be rewired. We also picked up some german glass glitter, beautiful old ribbon and vintage velvet flowers.

old ironstone, a true classic

german glass glitter in every weight and color..."I would like it all please"

﻿Shop No.2 - Patina Green
This newly opened shop is the one we first read about that spured the visit to McKinney. The shop is part antique store and part restaurant and they do both things very well. Visually beautiful, the whole space is exploding with good things.

﻿﻿﻿﻿small white pumpkins in a wheelbarrow at the entrance...notice the wallpaper (I did).﻿ ﻿

love all the little bottles lined up in a row...a little pricey at $10 a piece though.

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preserved roses

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And then there's the bathroom...no words needed here.

Even lunch had fabulous packaging...a grilled sandwich wrapped up in brown wax butcher paper and a cookie for dessert.

Shop No. 3 - Chase Hall
This shop had new and old things...great decorating inspiration. Love the original brick wall and sign.

Shop No. 4 - The Antique Co
Probably the best antique mall I have ever been too. There is one or two vendors that have multiple booths that were right up my alley. We all had a great time looking for just the right things...deb got vintage prize ribbons and old pictures, Patty got a flower frog, Ellen got acrylic letters and numbers and I got everything else (really).

and Patty's buy of the century...chalkware stackable casserole dishes (about 5 x 6") for $2.99 for the whole stack.

﻿﻿We're off to Waco tomorrow (Friday, Sept 24th) to teach at Crop, Paper, Scissors. We have a free make and take from 4:30 - 5:45 and a journal class at 6pm. Saturday there are two classes, the house we have been teaching and a letterblock tray. I think there is room in the Sat classes for all you not going to the begining of antiques week down south. You can call the store at 254-751-7020 for information.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Today Deb and I and our sisters were up at the crack of dawn (literally) to head out to Quanah, TX to a junk store that rivals the one we visited in Australia earlier this year. About 3 hours from Forth Worth, Quanah is in a long line of VERY small towns that you pass on your way from Forth Worth to Amarillo (assuming you wanted to go to Amarillo).
This place is right on highway 287...it's easy to spot because of all the junk outside. I think the pictures will speak better than any words on this one. Here we go...

On the road to Quanah. Look at how low the clouds are to the ground. The landscape goes on like this for miles and miles. Just beautiful.
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big sky of Texas

﻿﻿We stopped at a VERY nice rest stop on the way. This was the sign going in...there was another one right by the playground.
"Sure,go play kids, but watch out for the rattlesnakes"

Inside the rest stop was this sign...something you never see in California. We have enough problems with the earthquakes and fires.

Deb and the sisters going in...you are not going to believe this place. I must admit I only took pictures in part of the building...there is MUCH more here than what the pictures show. It's one of those "see it to believe it" places.

Rows and rows of stuff. All meticulously catagorized and priced. It was hotter than Hades in there and the mosquitoes were swarming around our feet, but that wasn't going to stop us from looking.

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pool balls $2

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shoe forms $3-5

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giant tubs of marbles

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dishes and glasses

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bottles, ink wells by the dozen

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a whole outside area of junk

﻿﻿﻿﻿There was a huge shed building that had a gate that was closed. My sister asked if it was open and the man said, "I'm just too lazy to open it today". So, we didn't get to go in the shed.
We all walked away with something (I'll try and take some pictures tomorrow)...I do know Ellen got this metal thing. She asked the man what it was and he said, "I forget", she bought it anyway. Patty got cigar boxes and a small license plate with her name. Deb got a fabulous tomato pin pushion full of old hat pins (for $3.98). I got more cigar boxes for my junk, some small leather books, and a whole group of small bottles with little red labels (and maybe some other bits). All in all it was a fun day other than the fact that after we left the junk place we had to drive directly to the local grocery store for some Benadryl for my mosquito bites!

Tomorrow were going east to McKinney, TX.
I'll let you know what we find...

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

So here we are in Texas. I arrived on Monday and Deb will come in this afternoon. So I had to do SOMETHING today (I couldn't just sit around)...so my sister and I headed out to a new place, "Working the Flea" on Camp Bowie in downtown Fort Worth. ﻿﻿﻿﻿

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love the message in the window

The store has new and old...a nice mix of good stuff. We wandered through the store picking out some fun stuff to take home, and then we wandered around again and found some more!

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at the cash wrap

Lot's of jewelry and charms mixed with funky vintage.﻿

Look at these sconces! They wear FABULOUS! I would guess they were at least 2ft tall. $385 for the pair. That is a great deal. If these were in a Rachel Ashwell showroom they would be $1200 each.

﻿Here's our find of the day...(more in our price range too)...vintage counting cards. I have never seen these before so we snatched them up for only $10.

Lucky Day.

Tomorrow we're on a day trip driving to Quanah, TX with some stops along the way (one of them will surely be Sonic). So stay with us...as the girls shop Texas.

Friday, September 17, 2010

We apologize for not posting more pictures of the Advent but we had to stop collecting for a few days and make some kits for this weekends classes. Today we are at Scrap Happy Sisters in Glendale, AZ and then tomorrow at Making Memories Unforgettable in Tucson, AZ. Then we fly to Texas for a visit with our sisters and 3 classes at Crop, Paper, Scissors in Waco. This will be the first time we have taught in Texas (we normally just shop there) so we are excited to meet the ladies.

This is just a beginning of the Tray class kits we are teaching in Tucson and Waco. Good thing Debbie has a great big island in her kitchen to set out the kits. The sad thing is that the advent calendar has taken over all of Deb's big studio, one guest bedroom, and the large kitchen table so this really was the only place we had to even make the kits. Sad but true! On the other hand all the sparkly silver glitter, old paper, and a forest of little trees is great encouragement that the kit is worth all the effort... love those little trees.

Just a portion of items for the calendar...you should see the piles...in fact we weighed the box this week...just under 5 pounds.

hand glittered jingle bells

lovely stacks of collected butter pat dishes

We'll be back next week...blogging about what we see and do in the big state of Texas. Wish it was Round Top, but it just wasn't in the cards for this trip.

Lucky Day...it's when you get the first parking space at a busy store or when you find the thing that you have been looking for forever or it's finding a friend when you weren't even looking for one. What a LUCKY day.